Imagine if we all wore the same clothes, lived in the same sort of house and drove the same sort of car. Social scientists ponder this at length. Our deep-seated need for recognition, our vanity and pride – how would it be satisfied? Would we try to stand out from the pack through our eloquence and knowledge, or would we command respect by what we contributed, rather than by what we extracted?
Our consumer culture makes it easy to gain recognition from others through the symbolism of goods....
